Lawyer explains eminent domain to residents
“Speaking Tuesday night at an event sponsored by the Joshua High School Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, Bradbury said that as an attorney specializing in eminent domain cases, he has “been on both sides of the docket.”
He said more and more people are being affected in some way by eminent domain, including Johnson County because of construction of Texas 121, the activity of oil and gas companies and the area’s rapid growth.
Eminent domain is, basically, the legal concept that allows the government or some other entity to take private property for public use. For example, a governmental entity — such as a county or state — can take private property to build a county or state road or to widen an existing road.
Some people, Bradbury said, mistakenly believe that eminent domain violates either the federal or state constitutions or both. He said both constitutions allow use of eminent domain. Both the federal and Texas constitutions do, though, require that property owners be compensated for property taken through eminent domain. The property being taken has to be used for the common good, not for private enrichment.”
Nash, Tammye. Cleburne Times Review 31 May 2013.